Durham Public Schools has one month to fill 200 vacancies; job fair Wednesday

It's crunch time for Durham Public Schools with one month left to fill hundreds of job positions before the start of the school year.

About 25 schools will here be at Southern High School Wednesday for a job fair. The district has roughly 200 job vacancies.

In August of last year, the district had 350 unfilled positions.

Candidates only need a bachelors degree to apply. DPS also has different teaching tracks so that employees can get their teaching license.

The greatest areas of need are teachers for math, science and special needs -- and bus drivers.

DPS has $3,000 sign-on bonuses for these teachers, as well as incentives for bus drivers.

"We do have a great incentive program that is going on for our current DPS employees," said Michelle Hayes, executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition for DPS. "If they refer someone and they're here for 90 days, they will get $1,000. We also have an attendance incentive that we offer every month for our bus drivers. So bus drivers is definitely a high need."

She said the $1,500 retention bonus is making the greatest impact. That bonus will be given out in September for returning staff members.

The job fair is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.